Scots Rally Past Blueboys in OT on Wednesday

by Nathan Baliva

MONMOUTH, Ill. (12/04/2025) — The Monmouth College men's basketball team rallied from down 12 points to beat Illinois College 74-72 in overtime in their Midwest Conference opener on Wednesday. The Fighting Scots (5-2, 1-0) put four players in double figures and scored 50 points after halftime.

"A great comeback win for us tonight," said head coach Todd Skrivseth. "I'm proud the guys stuck with it and played to the buzzer. Defensively we played very well at times which kept us in the game despite struggling on the offensive end. IC is a quality team that made things difficult and this is a great opening win in conference play."

Jason Huber (Carpentersville, Illinois) made two free throws on the second possession and Kyle Taylor (Moline, Illinois) made a layup for a 4-0 lead. Cam Thomas (Arlington, Texas) threw down a one-handed dunk in traffic for a 6-3 lead but IC scored the next 12 points. Fresh off the football season, Julian Samuels (Annawan, Illinois) knocked down a baseline jumper to end the run. Taylor hit a jumper but IC nailed a 3-pointer for an 18-10 lead.

Samuels made two free throws but so did the Blue Boys as they pushed the lead to 24-12. HUber hit a 3-pointer, Monmouth's first of the night, with 3:30 to play in the half and Max Maring (Port Byron, Illinois) made six free throws to pull the Scots within three. The visitors remained cold on the offensive end and Taylor made two free throws with 1:11 on the clock. Samuels tied the game with a free throw and neither team scored in the final possession.

"This group has no quit, we love to battle and play hard for each other," said Huber. "We go down 10 we were still confident we could execute our stuff and come back and fortunately that's what we were able to do."

Tied at 24 to start the second half, IC hit a pair of 3-pointers and Zay Brown (Peoria, Illinois) scored four straight for the Scots. Brown hit a jumper and Maring tied the game with a layup. After an IC 3-pointer, Brown hit a long jumper and three free throws to tie the game at 37. The Blueboys splashed a fourth 3-pointer of the half before Brown made two more free throws. Samuels tied the game at 41 with a jumper and Brown gave the Scots a 43-41 lead with a jumper off glass. Jase Whiteman (Andalusia, Illinois) forced an IC timeout with a jumper.

The Blueboys scored the next four points to tie the game with 8:00 to play. They converted a 3-point play to take a 48-45 lead and added a layup as the Scots went four minutes without scoring. THe Blueboys led 52-45 when Thomas made a spinning layup but the Blueboys hit another wide open 3-pointer. Maring scored at the rim to pull the Scots within six but IC responded with a 5-0 run to lead 60-49 with 3:40 to play. Thomas made a layup and free throw before Taylor stole the inbounds pass and fed Brown for a layup to cut the score to 60-54. Brown split free throws as did Thomas before Maring stole the ball in the backcourt. Brown pulled the Scots within one with a 3-point play and IC called timeout with 1:08 to go.. Down 61-59, Taylor tied the game with a layup through traffic with 35.6 seconds left. Maring rebounded an IC miss but Thomas missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer to send the game into overtime.

Thomas scored on Monmouth's first possession of overtime for a 63-61 lead but IC answered. IC made four free throws on the next possession with a shooting foul on Thomas and a technical foul on coach Skrivseth. Thomas scored and Taylor made a free throw with 2:10 to play. After a stop, Brown made two free throws and IC's lead was down to 69-68, Maring grabbed a rebound and was fouled with 1:06 left, making both for a 70-69 lead. IC took a 71-70 but Huber canned a corner 3-pointer for a 73-71 lead with 33.8 seconds left. After IC split free throws, so did Taylor and the Blueboys called timeout with 1.4 seconds left and Monmouth leading 74-72.

"That play wasn't for me but Kyle made a great pass, Zay took two guys and I was fortunate enough to knock it down," said Huber.

Brown led the Scots with 23 points, all after halftime, and he grabbed nine rebounds. Maring had a 12-point, 12-rebound double-double while Thomas added 10 points. Taylor scored 10 points and grabbed eight rebounds while Huber had eight points and seven rebounds. Taylor led the Scots with four assists and three streaks while Brown blocked two shots.

MONMOUTH MOMENTS: Brown has been in double digits in all seven games this season ... He scored Monmouth's first 11 points in the second half ... Taylor has 120 career steals ... Samuels made his Monmouth basketball debut after scoring a touchdown on Saturday in the D3 football playoff game ... He scored seven points while two rebounds, two steals and a block ... Brown scored all 23 of his points after halftime ... He was 9-for-10 at the free throw line while Maring was 8-for-9 ... The Scots were 4-0 in overtime last year, 3-0 at home ... Monmouth leads the all-time series 75-29 ... Monmouth is 9-6 in the last 15 meetings ... The teams split last year with the home team winning both games ... The Scots are 17-10 against IC under coach Skrivseth with a 10-4 mark at home ... The Scots play at 1 p.m. at Knox on Saturday ... The next home game is Dec. 13 at 1 p.m. against Lawrence.